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Benvenuti!
The Melbourne Branch of the Dante Alighieri Society was established in 1896. Part of a global organisation committed to promoting Italian language and culture internationally, Dante Melbourne links Victoria to the heart of Rome. As the oldest branch of the Dante Alighieri Society in an English speaking country, we are a dynamic and ever-evolving part of the local and international Italian community.
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You are warmly invited to
The omo di mare in Inspector Montalbano Crime Series:
A Mediterranean Perspective
A talk by Dr Barbara Pezzotti (Monash University)
Presented by CO.AS.IT. and Società Dante Alighieri Melbourne
to mark the centenary of Andrea Camilleri’s birth
Tuesday 11 November 2025, 6.30-8pm
CO.AS.IT., 199 Faraday Street, Carlton, VIC 3053
Free event. Registration essential here
In this presentation, crime fiction scholar Barbara Pezzotti frames Andrea Camilleri as a Mediterranean author, focusing in particular on the figure of the omo di mare (man of the sea), a recurring concept in the Inspector Montalbano crime series. By analysing a few novels, such as Il cane di terracotta (1996, The Terracotta Dog, 2002), Il ladro di merendine (1996, The Snack Thief, 2003), Il giro di boa (2003, Rounding the Mark, 2006) and L’altro capo del filo (2016, The Other End of the Line, 2019), Barbara Pezzotti shows how the omo di mare – that is, a person whose life is informed by the Mediterranean Sea and who feels cultural and personal affinity with fellow Mediterranean people – is an element that not only characterises Inspector Montalbano, but also informs the investigation and is an integral part of Camilleri’s political and social preoccupations expressed throughout the series. Ultimately, omo di mare is a transcultural concept that also significantly recurs in interviews Camilleri gave throughout his career, becoming a vital aspect of Camilleri’s Mediterranean-ness.
- Barbara Pezzotti is a Cassamarca Senior Lecturer in European Languages at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. Her research interests include crime fiction and popular culture, literary geographies and utopian literature. She has published on Italian, Spanish, New Zealand and Scandinavian crime fiction. She is the author of Mediterranean Crime Fiction: Transcultural Narratives in and around the “Great Sea” (Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press, 2023). She is also the author of Investigating Italy’s Past through Crime Fiction, Films and TV Series: Murder in the Age of Chaos (Palgrave MacMillan, 2016) Politics and Society in Italian Crime Fiction: An Historical Overview (McFarland, 2014); and The Importance of Place in Contemporary Italian Crime Fiction. A Bloody Journey (FDU Press, 2012). She is the co-editor (with Jean Anderson and Carolina Miranda) of The Foreign in International Crime Fiction: Transcultural Representations (London: Continuum, 2012); Serial Crime Fiction. Dying for More (London and New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2015); Blood on the Table: Essays on Food in International Crime Fiction (Jefferson NC: McFarland, 2018).
Applications for scholarships for teachers of Italian
The Dante Alighieri Society of Melbourne, with the support of the Italian Australian Foundation, is offering international travel scholarships, based on need, to secondary school teachers of Italian to travel to Italy to study Italian with one of the Dante Alighieri Society schools in Italy.
Two $500 scholarships are also available for primary school teachers of Italian to study an online course with one of the Dante Alighieri Society schools in Italy.
APPLICATIONS FOR 2025 HAVE NOW CLOSED. WATCH THIS SPACE FOR 2026 APPLICATION DETAILS!
Two $500 scholarships are also available for primary school teachers of Italian to study an online course with one of the Dante Alighieri Society schools in Italy.
APPLICATIONS FOR 2025 HAVE NOW CLOSED. WATCH THIS SPACE FOR 2026 APPLICATION DETAILS!
